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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
May 2002 |
My witness:
You've got mail … really!
By Phil Isgrigg
A provocative e-mail joke snaking its way through office cubicles warns how this digital age can take over your life:
You just tried to enter your password on a microwave. You pull into your driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home. You frequently e-mail a total stranger in Siberia, but it's been over a year since you spoke to your next-door neighbor. You fail to keep in touch with your family because none of them have an e-mail address. You start tilting your head sideways when you smile. You are reading this list. What's worse, you plan to forward it to someone else!
I've got mail? This digital update message resembles my correspondence of late. Friends, colleagues, relatives in faraway places and former parishioners now keep in touch via the Internet. These notes, a paragraph or two long, range from "I'm late for a meeting, so I must hurry!" to dubious words of wisdom: "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Noah's Ark." If the "medium is the message," as Marshall McLuhan claimed, then the message of most e-mail friendships states: "I'm goofing off at work!"
A few blips do not a letter make. I hit the delete key on most of these timely but soon forgotten notes. The clever postings I spool to my printer and tack to my bulletin board. A handwritten treasure, however, I save to a manila folder for future rereading.
Personal correspondence found among the junk mail remains one of life's most joyous discoveries. You caress a letter in your hand because you know someone sat for an hour and thought of you and just what to say.
The following ritual will increase your enjoyment of letter reading. Separate your personal mail from the credit card solicitations, windowed envelopes and glossy advertisements. Then, pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee or tea and settle into a favorite chair before you begin reading.
Take as much time to scan the contents as you believe the sender took in the writing. Ponder each phrase and savor every sentence. Refrain from reading the last paragraph first because you suspect the sender wants something.
A recent letter from a former associate did contain an appeal in his final paragraph. After a litany of fond remembrances and shared experiences, he closed with a request. Would I be so kind as to send him the address of a mutual friend relocated to our area?
I pray my e-buddies will continue to stuff my pc inbox with their Fwd repartee. Still, I thank God for the genuine mail I receive from friends across the miles and the years. The rare handwritten letter remains an exquisite artifact of living friendship.
Last updated on 01/14/2004The Rev. Philip Isgrigg, a retired elder of the NIC, thanks his friends for their real mail sent to him and his wife Sue at their home in Fishers, Indiana.